Ray Lewis should shut up

In case you've been doing hard time or in a deep freeze since last night, you've probably heard Sugar Ray Lewis' comments concerning two roughing the passer calls the Ravens got called for in yesterday's Baltimore-New England game.

In case you missed them, here are the comments:

"Without totally going off the wall here, it's embarrassing to the game,"
Lewis told reporters after the game. "You can't do that. [Tom] Brady's good
enough to make a play. Let him make his own play. You can't end the play like
that, and then throw the flag. No, man. The embarrassing part is when he
understands that, and he walks up to one of us and says, 'Oh, that was a cheap
one.'"

"That's not football," Lewis added. "And that's the embarrassing part about
it. Two great teams going at it, let them go at it. But you can't stop drives
like that, you can't throw flags and say, 'Oh, you touched the quarterback.' Put
flags on them. Put a red buzzer on them, so if we touch them, they're
down."

Okay...the first of the calls was where DT Haloti Ngata ran at a passing Brady and threw his arms up as Brady threw. Ngata's left hand barely brushed Brady's helmet. But according to the NFL rule, if a defender's hand comes into contact with a quarterback's head at any point during a play, the flag is automatically thrown for a 15-yard penalty.

The second call was when Terrell Suggs came diving towards Brady as he threw. At best, he brushed Brady's legs, as Brady was able to dodge to the side a little and avoid Suggs. But with the new "Brady rule," which prohibits coming at a QB below the waist, the flag was thrown.

Now, do I think these rules are silly? The first one definitely. I understand the need to draw a line somewhere, but a hand to the helmet should not be an automatic flag. The second one, I understand. It's like the rule about drilling an unprotected WR as he goes up for a catch. A Qb has to step into throws and is awfully vulnerable, just like a WR in the air trying to make a catch. I heard the guys on NFL Network complain, "but he didn't hit him!" That should not matter. If you want to stop the knee injuries, you have to throw the flag at "attempts" as well as "successes."

However, both of these rules are KNOWN. You can't do it. As Brady said...the Pats were warned about this crew and their propensity of calling shit tight. You got to know the rules and the refs.

But I got more problems with Ray than that. First...no call in a game is as embarrassing as a supposed superstar being a witness to a murder and not cooperating with the authorities. That is an embarrassment, Ray. Be a man and man up.

Second...you want to know what is really embarrassing? A fading superstar, jumping up and celebrating like he just scored the game-winning TD after his big "hit," not realizing that the journeyman RB actually picked up the yard needed for the first down and your opponent now has a 1st and goal from the 2 yard line. Seriously...watch that entire TD drive right at the end of the first/beginning of second by the Pats. First, Lewis got lost in the trash on a 2 & 10 from the 12. Then on the following 4 & 1 from the 3yd line, Ray Lewis got a clean, full shot on Sammy Morris and Morris won. But Lewis jumped up off the ground and went running around like he thought he won the battle when it was painfully obvious it was a first. Then, following a penalty and subsequent gain, Lewis had a chance at stopping Tom Brady and Brady powered through on a sneak on 2 & goal from the 1 for a TD.

Hey...we all fade, you know. But when you had a chance to stop the other team three times in 6 plays, how about shut up with excuses. Lewis is not even the third best defensive player on that team now. First is Ngata. Second, Ed Reed. Third, Terrell Suggs. Lewis is at best fourth. And he sounded like a punk after yesterday's game.

Come on, Ray. You were great once. Feared. You stole Eddie George's soul to the point that he heard your footsteps and let the game clinching int bounce off of his shoulder pads during the 2000 playoffs. Stop acting a fool and assume the role of elder statesman.